Need help with Brute Force cracking.

[e><ius]

(lots of text but please read!)

1)
I've been having a hard time brute forcing my own password on winxp pro using L0phtcrack 5. I made a new user name/pw on my machine and typed J!K@j1k2 as my pw. It spent 3-4days working on a P4 3.4ghz 2gb ram, using "Strong Password Audit", and enabling "Dictionary Crack" default dictionary list, "Dictionary/Brute Hybrid Crack", "Precomputed", "Brute Force Crack".
I got terrible results. It came up with *******2 and I also did enable check for symbols, numbers, and letters. What can I do to improve my find?

2)
Is there a way to submit passwords via brute force in an application? software: game; user name: known; pass: not stored in hashes (server reliant); pw submit limit/lock: unknown.
I used to pw my accounts in key patterns just like how I do that with my v-mail pw - yes, Im a visual learner. Here's are the variables "J" "K" "L" "U" "I" "O" (not in order), length is 8-11 characters.
John the Ripper, as I know, can only brute force pw using hashes. The only thing i think i can do is find a way to submit thru the program's password box 262144-1771561 different combinations. Tell me if I'm wrong or if there's another method.

(i know, i shoulda made two topics instead.)